Little Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois (c) Bill Oliver 11 April 2004 Vol 3 Issue: #15 ISBN: pending Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, Massachusetts on the fifth of April in 1621, making a return trip to England. And, on that date in 1887, Lord Acton wrote, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Early in January 2004, with much pomp and ceremony, Queen Elizabeth II of the British Isles pushed a button which launched a "jeroboam" of vintage French Veuve Clicquot against the hull of the new RMS Queen Mary II. Nicknamed the QM2, she is the longest [1,132 feet], widest [135 feet], tallest [236 feet from keel to smoke stacks] ocean liner, and weighs 151,000 tons. This new ship boasts of 10 restaurants, 14 bars, 2000 bathrooms, 3000 telephones and 5000 stairs. Oh wouldn't my granddaughter love to verify that last statistic! She has always counted steps. :) Well, with a three stories high, two level restaurant, I'm quite sure that the price is well out of my reach. The QM1 is resting in Long Beach, California. The QM1 was built under the name of "hull 534". The Cunard-White Star Line intended for the name Victoria to be given the hull 534, following their tradition of naming their ship with ~ia endings. A story is preserved that Cunard asked King George V for permission to name the ship, a required formality, after "England's most illustrious queen", meaning, of course, Queen Victoria. The King was delighted with the suggestion, however, mistook that to mean Her Royal Majesty Queen Mary. The Queen consented to launch the ship named for her and did so on 19 September 1934. The QM1 showed a profit before WWII, so Cunard built a mate to the QM1. They named it the Queen Elizabeth. Though started in 1938 it didn't enter service until 1940. It was 27 September 1938 when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, launched her. The Queen had not began her speech and the ship was slipping down toward the water. The quick acting Queen smashed the bottle of champagne across the bow and named her the Queen Elizabeth. Instead of becoming the running mate of the Queen Mary, the Queen Elizabeth was destined to be temporarily outfitted as a troop ship. Sailing on the 3rd of March she arrived in New York four days later, followed a day later by her running mate, the Queen Mary. The Queen Elizabeth was painted gray and later both Queens were nicknamed "Grey Ghost" because no matter what the rumor of their being sunk, they always arrived at their destinations unscathed. Ah, for years this history buff called the two ships "sister ships". Which, in truth, is inaccurate. They were "running" mates. The two liners had great differences. The Queen Mary was of traditional design and had three funnels. The Queen Elizabeth was patterned after the Normandie and had only two funnels. The Queen Elizabeth's decks were clear of the apparatus found on the decks of the Queen Mary. The Queens were outfitted to carry 15,000 troops each. There were only two dining areas and two saloons; these were the only open spaces. Rooms were outfitted with "standee" bunks. These stretcher like canvas pieces slung between poles were arranged as high as six bunks. Sleep was arranged in two shifts with about 8000 sleeping at one time. The Queen Elizabeth was 83,673 tons when built. She was 1,031 feet long and 118 feet wide. Her draft was 38 feet of water. Her reported speed was 28.5 knots. Being reminded of the return to England of the Mayflower, and reading about the QM2 in the luxury travel section of my newspaper, I was reminded of the earlier Queens. In January 1942 the Queen Elizabeth returned American citizens, evacuated from Europe and Bermuda, to the New York Harbor. My sister, Skipper, was not yet four and I was not yet ten. Due to crowded conditions, Mother and Skip were birthed in a room of standee bunks that contained women and I in another containing men. Mom was as "seasick" as anyone I've ever known on this return trip and couldn't keep anything down that she tried to eat. I had to take my sister out on deck for daily exercise. Skip had to wear a leather harness with strap which I was keep a tight grip on at all times. Skip loved to lean out between the steel cable railings to look at the water rushing by. I prevented as much of that type of sightseeing as I could. e-la-di-e-das-di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) Wado, Bill -=- PostScript: Other sites worth visiting: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html